Illegal Trading Activity in Rhondda Cynon Taf

Rhondda Cynon Taf Trading Standards Service relies on information provided to us by residents, businesses and other agencies in order to try to identify undesirable and illegal trading activity and the victims of such activity. We use this information to help us protect our communities and legitimate businesses.

We are particularly interested in receiving information about the following issues within Rhondda Cynon Taf:-

Traders involved in the supply of illegal tobacco and alcohol (e.g., counterfeit or non-duty paid products, tobacco products with labelling in foreign languages or without health warnings and pictures);

Traders supplying counterfeit goods such as clothing, films, games, perfumes, jewellery, whether in shops, from home, at work or online;

Traders calling on vulnerable residents to offer home improvement services such as gardening, roofing and driveway work etc.

Traders exploiting vulnerable residents by, for example, selling them misdescribed or over priced goods or services;

Illegal money lending activity, i.e., ‘loan sharking’;

Traders selling clocked, misdescribed or dangerous cars or pretending they are making private sales;

Traders selling unsafe goods or ones brought in from abroad that do not meet UK safety standards;

Food and drink fraud including fish or meat species substitution (e.g., cheap white fish sold as cod, cheap brands of alcohol sold as well known brands) or false place of origin claims etc;

Animal health and welfare issues (eg where farm animals are moved without licences or with fake documentation or where unnecessary suffering is caused to farm animals or animals being sold);

If you have any information about people who you believe may be engaged in such trading activities or anyone who you believe may be a victim of such activity, then you can report your concerns directly to Trading Standards using the Illegal Activity Online Form. Sometimes we will need to get more information to support what you have said before we are able to start an investigation. If you obtain further information after you submit this form, you are welcome to send us another report.

This service can only carry out investigations of issues where the incident has taken place within Rhondda Cynon Taf or where the trader is based in Rhondda Cynon Taf. If the incident has taken place in a different area please report the issue to the relevant Trading Standards Service.

If you have a consumer complaint, for example in respect of problems with goods or services that you have purchased, then advice is provided by Citizens Advice Consumer Service. They can be contacted on 03454 040506 or online using their Consumer Query form.